If you’re a fan of real-life ghost stories, then this is the book for you.

If you’re a fan of truckers, those modern-day “cowboys” of the highways, then this book is doubly for you.

Truckers are on the road at all times of night, in all weather, and, evidently, when every sort of ghost, monster, or UFO is out and about. This collection of stories runs the gamut from terrifying to tame. I was fascinated by the story of a trucker attacked by a UFO full of aliens but who refused to be abducted. I got the creeps listening to the story of a trucker parked for sleeping who was attacked by evil spirits who evidently muffled even his cries for help from other sleepers nearby. Other stories, such as a floating red light, were less satisfying.

As with all “real” ghost stories, it is up to the listener to judge whether these incidents were authentic or due to tricks of light, lack of sleep, or a handful of uppers for the road. Adding to the authentic feel, although not necessarily to any literary value, is the fact that the stories were written by the truck drivers themselves and not professional writers. This leads to a lot of “sign offs” such as “That is my story.”

The stories are narrated by Tavia Gilbert and Peter Ganim who have personable styles and will even give the tale a regional twang if the story mentions a city of origin.

What I discovered from this book is that I’m not nearly as big a fan of real-life ghost stories as I thought. Or perhaps it is that listening to a steady dose of them for several hours is just not my cup of tea. If you are interested in the supernatural, paranormal, or just in hearing some straight forward, sincerely told ghost stories, give it a try.

Break out your slide-rules and drop your bongs people! #004 of The SFFaudio Podcast is all about extreme knitting this week. Extreme knitting being being mostly about the audiobooks, and less about the knitting.

I was very intrigued by this title, because First Contact is one of the themes in science fiction that interests me most. This title appears to have been released as a promotion for the movie called Independence Day. The story is new, though it follows the same lines as the successful film.

In this one, a BBC FM Radio station holds a UFO watch after spending some time previous to the story beaming signals into space with hopes that a UFO will respond. The whole thing is tongue-in-cheek and done in good fun. But then something does respond, and it’s headed this way.

The structure of the story is very much like Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds, which is referenced in the beginning. It starts out in a realistic way, the FM host Nicky Campbell reporting the news as it’s happening, then moving into a third person perspective after the aliens have landed, just like Orson Welles’ 1939 production.

I wasn’t fond of this audio drama for one main reason – the entire “realistic” part of it was simply not believable. Nicky Campbell was on an aircraft along with an astronomer (Patrick Moore) and reported live as they monitored the incoming signal. None of the performers in this part of the production act in a believable manner when presented with evidence of an extraterrestrial craft headed their way. It’s more of a “isn’t this interesting and amusing” attitude rather than a “wow, this is REALLY happening” attitude.

In the production’s favor, the host they used (Nicky Campbell) is a real BBC host, and the astronomer (Patrick Moore) a real astronomer, both of BBC Radio 1. In other words, these folks were not actors. Regardless, it just didn’t work, but perhaps the entire production was not meant to be taken seriously.

The rest of the production? More Dirk Maggs audio magic. UFO’s and jets dueling in the skies, all remarkably done with sound.